Tag: Bengals offensive line

Bengals HOF tackle Munoz likes Washington OT Troy Fautanu

Anthony Munoz reveals which OT he likes for the Bengals in the draft.

The Cincinnati Bengals are currently in need of a right tackle since Jonah Williams is about to be a free agent, but with the draft coming up late next month, there are a lot of options available they could take in the first round.

One of those players is Washington’s Troy Fautanu, who could still be available when the No. 18 pick comes around. A former Bengals Hall of Fame offensive tackle likes what he sees in Fautanu according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.

Here’s what Anthony Munoz, who played in the Pac-8, said about the Pac-12 tackle:

“There’s not a lot of respect for the Pac 12, but the left tackle for Washington is pretty impressive,” said Munoz, who has his weight exactly right. “Since they were in the playoffs, I saw a lot of him. Impressive. I watched his workout and they had him at 317 pounds and he was moving pretty well. The guy from Oregon State is also excellent.”

Fautanu had an impressive showing at the scouting combine with a 5.01 time in the 40 and a 1.71 time in the 10-yard split, a top-10 time.

If he is available when the Bengals pick comes up, the Bengals will certainly have their eyes on him.

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Bengals met with Alabama OL JC Latham at scouting combine

The Bengals met with one of the draft’s biggest names.

The Cincinnati Bengals are looking ahead to the NFL draft with the scouting combine over, but they are starting to get a better idea of who might be someone they could take with their pick at No. 18.

Over the weekend, Alabama right tackle JC Latham said he has met with the Bengals, which would make sense for them in the first round since Jonah Williams is a free agent this offseason and could be looking for a new home so he can go back to the position he moved from on the left side of the line.

“It would be an amazing experience playing with that team,” Latham said at the combine, according to TWSN’s Daniel Alameda. “They’re a Super Bowl-caliber team. They were a play away from winning. It would mean the world if I was drafted by them.”

There are other positions the Bengals need to improve at through the draft as well, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they make protecting Joe Burrow their biggest priority after missing the playoffs after he missed most of the second half of the season with an injury.

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Bengals’ Jonah Williams adjusting to new position

Jonah Williams talked about playing a new position for the Bengals.

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Cincinnati Bengals‘ offensive tackle Jonah Williams is still going through rehab from an injury he suffered in the postseason, but he is also getting prepared for his switch to right tackle after the Orlando Brown Jr. signing.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com reported that Williams is incorporating a right tackle stance in his rehab drills, relearning everything he knew from his 42 starts on the left side on the other side of his body.

“Post leg is your kick leg and vice versa and all that. It’s nothing that reps and practice won’t get me used to. … The last time I played right tackle was freshman year in college. There’s a lot of technique to kind of unlearn and switch to the other side. It’s my job. I love it. I’ve got a great coach, great teammates, and I’m grinding my ass off. I’m going to crush it.”

Williams’ attitude about the switch has seemingly changed since he requested a trade from the Bengals shortly after Brown joined the team.

There are no hard feelings Williams holds toward Brown who, he called a great player and said he is happy to have on the team.

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Bengals guard Cordell Volson learning from Orlando Brown Jr.

Bengals guard Cordell Volson is getting some big help from Orlando Brown Jr.

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The Cincinnati Bengals new signing, Orlando Brown Jr., is still getting to know some of his teammates with the seasons still a couple months away, but he has become a fan of his neighbor on the offensive line, left guard Cordell Volson.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com talked to Brown about Volson. Here’s some of what he had to say:

“He’s got that Pro Bowl potential with his size and mental makeup,” Brown says of Volson after one of the voluntary practices before next week’s mandatory minicamp. “I think he really uses his height to his advantage. His mindset and his length are two things that are really going to separate him in the long run.”

Volson said that Brown is having a big impact on his game and he has enjoyed getting tips from a guy who played with Marshal Yanda and Joe Thuney, which is exactly what Brandon Thorn of Bleacher Report said he expected recently.

Volson wants to improve on many things during his second year in the league, and Brown is going to be a big part of helping him do that.

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PFF details what Bengals are getting in Orlando Brown Jr.

What PFF’s numbers and analysis say about Orlando Brown’s arrival.

The Cincinnati Bengals made a big splash in free agency by signing OT Orlando Brown Jr. to a four-year, $64.1 million deal on March 16.

This move came after multiple seasons of struggling to protect Joe Burrow, which was highlighted most recently in the 23-20 AFC Championship loss against Brown’s former team, the Kansas City Chiefs, when Burrow was sacked five times.

Here’s what Dalton Wasserman at PFF thinks of the move for Brown:

Brown gives the Bengals a proven pass protector with playoff experience who just won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. He has never earned a pass-blocking grade below 74.4 in any of his five seasons in the NFL, and his 76.8 grade in 2022 was far superior to the mark put up by Bengals left tackle Jonah Williams (62.8).

Brown allowed just four sacks across 893 pass-blocking snaps in 2022 and was at his best down the stretch. From Week 11 through the Super Bowl, his 79.0 overall grade and 85.5 pass-blocking grade were top-12 marks among players at the position.

Also highlighted by Wasserman is that this move importantly gives the Bengals much more freedom in the draft, allowing them to look at different positions early on if that’s what they want to target.

Wasserman said that by PFF’s rankings, Burrow is the best QB in the league in terms of passing from a clean pocket since he was drafted with a 96.0 grade. Brown will help Burrow have the opportunity to do so more often.

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Bengals worked out OL Blake Freeland at Cougars pro day

Another notable to watch for the Bengals in the draft.

The Cincinnati Bengals were one of three teams to put OL Blake Freeland of BYU through some drills Friday.

After Freeland had a great performance at the Combine, Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network reported that the Jets, Saints, and Bengals were interested in him at the Cougars pro day.

With Jonah Williams requesting a trade after the Orlando Brown signing, the Bengals are showing some obvious interest in an OL prospect that they could draft in the middle rounds in April.

Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that the Bengals are entertaining trade calls for Williams, so it seems like they could be moving on going into his fifth season.

This is also notable since OT La’el Collins might not be ready for the beginning of the season after tearing his ACL and MCL in December. Paul Dehner of The Athletic has also said that Collins is “a prime candidate to be let go,” since cutting him would save the Bengals $6.1 million against the cap this season.

The Bengals have a few reasons to look for some help on the offensive line, and Freeland is one of many options.

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NFL Playoffs: Bengals have an edge against Chiefs with their ground game

When the Bengals and Chiefs face off in the AFC Championship game, Kansas City had best be prepared for Cincinnati’s improved ground game.

The Bengals have an edge against the Kansas City Chiefs.

No, I’m not talking about the passing game with Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. We all are aware of the Bengals high-flying passing offense. But their effectiveness in the run game is just as impressive.  We saw how they controlled the game on the ground with the Bills last week in the divisional round, but that wasn’t the same offense from the beginning of the season.

Joe Mixon didn’t see his first 100+ yard rushing game until week nine of the regular season. Against the Carolina Panthers in Week 9, Mixon scored a Bengals franchise record of five touchdowns; it was also a Panthers record for most scored by a single player against them.

Before the Panthers game, the Bengals were only rushing for 81 yards per game which was 30st in the NFL.

Something changed.

“We came out firing, we were physical, and you can just tell from the way the backs were playing, the way the linemen and tight ends and also receivers — they were blocking their (butts) off today,” Mixon said after the Panthers game. “And I’m just very excited that we have a balanced attack today. (Head coach) Zac (Taylor) kept calling the runs, and we basically were trying to be as physical as possible. … I’m just basically very happy for my team.”

The Bengals were finally healthy and playing with physicality. That was their mission against the Buffalo Bills as well, to out-physical the team on the other side in every single aspect, from the running to the blocking.

The Bengals out played the Bills in the trenches, and they only had two of their starting offensive linemen available, left guard Cordell Volson and center Ted Karras. So, their plan was to direct the run game through them.

They ran duo blocks, counters, and wham blocks, all directed towards the defensive tackles, pushing the ball right up the gut.

On the fourth run play of the game, they had those two offensive linemen take out the defensive tackle and then right tackle Hakeem Adeniji {No. 77), pull across the line and lead block for Mixon.

They used a puller several different ways to get open lanes up front. Even using a tight end to come across the line of scrimmage and pick up the edge defender while the left tackle works his way upfield.

Expect these same type of blocks against the Chiefs this upcoming week in the AFC Championship game.

The Bengals used a wham block with tight end Mitchell Wilcox in their last matchup as well, back in December, allowing Samaje Perine to gain six yards on the play.

Even the Jacksonville Jaguars found some success using Wham blocking scheme against the Kansas City Chiefs last week. Tight end Evan Engram came across the line and took out the edge defender allowing Travis Etienne to punch it up the gut.

The Chiefs’ weakest part of their defensive line is the middle and the right tackle gaps, according to Football Outsiders. They are 27th when defending runs to the ‘Mid/Guard’ and 22nd ranked when the offense runs toward their ‘Right tackle’:

Of course, it’s great if the Bengals backfield can bounce plays outside getting into open space, but their best bet is to attack the inside.

In the end, the most important thing for the Bengals offensive line is to play in unison and they should be just fine.

“You got three new guys that haven’t played together a whole lot. It’s a loud environment which already makes it difficult with guys who are on the same page,” right tackle Hakeem Adeniji said. “That was number one, obviously there’s other things but that was the biggest thing. I feel like we were able to nail that and we were in unison on a lot of the stuff that we were doing and it pays dividends.”

Even though the passing game for the Bengals is their bread-and-butter, this game will be won through the ground game, and could be the difference maker between these two teams.

Inside the one coverage that’s killing Joe Burrow and the Bengals

Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ offense are completely out of sorts. There’s one specific coverage that’s causing most of the problems.

Through the first two games of the 2022 season, the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals rank dead last in Offensive DVOA. Joe Burrow is the worst quarterback by DYAR, Football Outsiders’ cumulative opponent-adjusted efficiency metric, and only pre-injury Dak Prescott, and Chicago’s Justin Fields, are worse among quarterbacks in DVOA, which is FO’s per-play metric.

This is not what we expected. But it appears to be what defensive coaches playing the Bengals have expected, and are eager to exploit. Against the Steelers and the Cowboys, the now 0-2 Bengals have been a disaster on offense, and while it’s common to blame the offensive line for Burrow’s troubles — and that’s legitimate to a point as it was last season — there’s one particular defense that’s got head coach Zac Taylor’s offense on a spit.

So far this season, Cover-2 — zone defense with two deep safeties — has been Burrow’s bete noire, and opposing teams are well aware of it. No quarterback has more dropbacks against Cover-2 than Burrow’s 35, and he’s completed 16 of 25 passes against Cover-2 for 182 yards, 117 air yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, seven sacks, nine pressures, and a passer rating of 46.2. For the more metrically minded among us, Burrow’s EPA against Cover-2 is -14.79, by far the NFL’s worst. Daniel Jones of the Giants ranks second-worst at -11.66.

We do not talk about Justin Fields and Daniel Jones as top-five quarterbacks. We do talk about Burrow in that realm, but in 2022, he hasn’t looked like it at all. There are many reasons for this, but I want to focus on the one defensive scheme that has this offense — and its quarterback — in all kinds of trouble.

All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).

Bengals begin their mandatory O-line rebuild with ex-Bucs guard Alex Cappa

The Bengals desperate need for offensive line help led them to give former Bucs guard Alex Cappa a four-year, $40 million deal.

When it comes to the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, there is absolutely no question as to what the predominant need is, both in free agency and the draft. Quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked a league-high 70 times last season — Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill ranked second with 48 — and if Cincinnati had a competent offensive line in Super Bowl LVI, they might be the NFL champs right now.

It’s obviously something that has not gone unnoticed by general manager Duke Tobin and his staff. Because the Bengals came heavy right out of the gate in the legal tampering period, agreeing to terms with former Buccaneers guard Alex Cappa on a four-year, $40 million deal.

The suddenness of this move makes sense, because with all the issues that befell that line last season, right guard was the biggest problem. Hakeem Adeniji, a second-year sixth-round pick out of Kansas, allowed nine sacks and 37 total pressures in 2021, and he was specifically vulnerable in the Super Bowl, allowing three sacks and two hurries in that game alone. Adeniji also allowed three sacks in Cincinnati’s divisional round win over the Titans, and he just hasn’t proven to have what it takes to deal with the NFL’s better defensive tackles. Jeffery Simmons of the Titans specifically ate his lunch over and over. Far too often, Adeniji (No. 77) was just lost in space.

Cappa, a third-round pick out of Humboldt State in 2018, gives the Bengals what they need from a power and nastiness perspective. Even when asked to scrap against Aaron Donald, as he was here in Tampa Bay’s divisional round loss to the Rams, Cappa brings enough to at least hold his ground on an 11-yard Leonard Fournette run.

Cappa is decent, though not spectacular, in pass protection. He allowed five sacks and 35 total pressures in Tampa Bay’s extremely high-volume passing game (896 pass-blocking snaps), and while he’s well above-average when he’s dealing with defenders right in front of him, he can be bedeviled by stunts and quicker games. The sack he allowed to David Onyemata of the Saints in Week 15 shows that particular weakness.

In that same game, Cappa got housed by Cameron Jordan, who just went right by him with this filthy set of moves.

That said, the Bengals just got a lot better overall at the specifically weakest part of their general weakness for a decent comparative price. The wise assumption is that this team is nowhere near done redefining its offensive line.